{"id":72907,"date":"2023-01-23T12:53:24","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T10:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=72907"},"modified":"2025-09-09T11:08:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T08:08:44","slug":"vitalik-buterin-proposes-a-privacy-solution-for-ethereum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/vitalik-buterin-proposes-a-privacy-solution-for-ethereum\/","title":{"rendered":"Vitalik Buterin proposes a privacy solution for Ethereum"},"content":{"rendered":"

The co-founder Ethereum<\/a> Vitalik Buterin named privacy “the biggest remaining problem” of the network and proposed a solution.<\/p>\n

He reminded that by default all information on the public blockchain is public. This means the potential disclosure not only of cryptocurrency transactions but also of registration data ENS<\/a>, any types of NFTs, and other data, Buterin noted.<\/p>\n

To ensure privacy, he proposed using the concept of stealth addresses (stealth addresses).<\/p>\n

Under the scheme, the user creates a spending key used to generate a meta-address for passing assets to the recipient. The latter uses the data to create a stealth address through cryptographic computations to send assets to it. Along with the transaction, he publishes an encrypted key (ephemeral pubkey), which helps the recipient locate the address.<\/p>\n

\\\"Vitalik
Transaction diagram showing a stealth address. Data: Buterin’s blog.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For each operation, a new stealth address is generated, unknown to anyone externally, even to the sender. The user can discover them all by scanning the network with the ephemeral pubkey.<\/p>\n

To further obscure the link between the data used to generate the stealth address, Buterin proposed using in the transaction chain a further couple of algorithms.<\/p>\n

To avoid disclosing information about the interactions of the stealth address when paying fees, for example in NFT transfers, the Ethereum co-founder proposed using ZK-SNARK privacy technology. Another option could be purchasing tickets (fee-payment bundles) from transaction aggregators.<\/p>\n

According to Buterin, the proposed privacy solution will create problems for wallets with social recovery. In such accounts, the multi-signature mechanism allows the owner, with the help of trusted parties, to regain access in case of data loss.<\/p>\n

Buterin believes that under this option users should accept that the recovery process will be complex, costly and time-consuming \u2014 up to two weeks. In the long run, the process could be simplified by using zero-knowledge proofs<\/a>, the Ethereum co-founder believes.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBasic stealth addresses could be implemented quite quickly now to significantly increase practical privacy for users in Ethereum. They require some work from wallets to support them. Nevertheless I believe we should move toward a more natural multi-address model for other privacy-related reasons,\u201d concluded Buterin.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Earlier in December, the Ethereum co-founder named five directions for the development<\/a> of the ecosystem of the second-largest cryptocurrency, which inspire him.<\/p>\n

Follow ForkLog’s Bitcoin news on our Telegram<\/a> \u2014 cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin named privacy ‘the biggest remaining problem’ of the network and proposed a solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[46,1256,200],"class_list":["post-72907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-ethereum","tag-privacy-and-personal-data","tag-vitalik-buterin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"21","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72909,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72907\/revisions\/72909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}